Out of sight, out of mind.
Dave Kearney played in each of Ireland’s five matches, in 2014, when they won the Six Nations.
Two separate injuries, totalling six months out, later and he was way down the queue when it came to Ireland’s back three.
The 26-year-old was as outside a bet as you could get at the beginning of the summer. To get one of the wing spots he would have to do battle with Bowe, Earls, Zebo, Trimble, Fitzgerald, McFadden and Gilroy.
An yet, here he is, a key figure in Ireland’s World Cup squad and named to start in his second match of the tournament – right wing against Canada, left wing against Italy.
Kearney scorched off the bench in the warm-up win over Scotland and was one of the few players to emerge with any credit after losses to England and Wales. He scored his third Test try in the romp over Canada after keeping Tommy Bowe out of the matchday squad.
The Cooley native admits he is not quite sure why Joe Schmidt likes him so much.
“I do as he says, I suppose, and play the way he wants me to play. But he definitely has shown a lot of faith in me.”
“We worked together a fair bit in Leinster as well,” Kearney adds.
“When I started off, at 20, he did a lot for my game when I was first coming into the mix. The more I played under him the more faith he showed in me.
“He plays you in a Heineken Cup game and there’s more faith, then an international game and it grows again. The more you play under him the more faith he shows in you.”
Kearney reveals the tidbits that have helped him become almost indispensable were taught on the back pitch out at UCD in the summer of 2010.
“[He showed me] small things I didn’t really know about the game.
“Especially for a back-three, running lines, how important the high ball was in passing.
“I remember the first training session we did at Leinster when he came, we did passing the high ball, and it’s proved out to be really important for a lot of the team’s success over the last few years. We did a lot defensively as well.”
While some may marvel at Kearney’s ability to comfortably exist on either wing but he insists it is more so down to practice than an innate ability.
“I don’t really have a dominant step, I can sidestep off both feet.
“Again, with the Leinster academy, I did a lot of work with Dan Tobin, who was our strength coach then. A lot of speed, agility and sidestep work.
“When you’re not on the pitch doing rugby that’s the sort of stuff you’re working on, speed and agility and that sort of stuff.
“When I was on the left wing, I was doing a lot more left-foot steps. The more you play there the more you become familiar and more comfortable in those spots.”
